Exciting News! We’re proud to announce that The Cancer Registry Legislation Toolkit is now available! Developed by the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and the African Cancer Registry Network (AFCRN), this important resource has just been released by IARC.
The Cancer Registry Legislation Toolkit is designed to help countries establish a strong legal foundation for the mandatory reporting of cancer diagnoses to population-based cancer registries.
This resource empowers policymakers, legal experts, and health professionals to take structured steps toward stronger cancer surveillance systems in their jurisdictions.
Why is The Cancer Registry Legislation Toolkit important? Cancer registries are essential for understanding cancer trends, guiding policy, reducing inequities and improving outcomes.
But a solid understanding of the global cancer burden is currently hampered by patchy data. Most cancer registries worldwide are in high-income countries. In Africa and Asia, only between 2% and 13% of the population are covered by a registry.
The Toolkit provides legal framework options for a cancer registry, dealing with compliance, privacy and enforceability — while allowing flexibility for local adaptation.
In the Toolkit, you’ll find:
- A comprehensive report outlining principles, considerations, and global examples of cancer registries
- A legislation template to draft laws
- A searchable database of existing national laws
- Practical guidance to align with international good practice
Explore the Toolkit here: https://publications.iarc.who.int/656
See the official announcement here: https://www.iarc.who.int/news-events/developing-a-legal-framework-for-population-based-cancer-registries-a-toolkit/
For a health system to deliver tailored care, the specific needs of the population that it serves must be identified. The aim is not to treat people with cancer as statistics, but to understand the statistics of cancer in order to provide more equitable and inclusive care for all. We hope that this Toolkit will help global efforts to collect and act on cancer data, in a legally compliant way!
Thanks to key authors and contributors: Sondra Davoren, Donald Maxwell Parkin, Ma-Anne Rosales-Sto Domingo, Rachel Kitonyo-Devotsu, Hayley Jones and Freddie Bray.